GlobalFoundries will Acquire IBM Chip Business
IBM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES have signed an agreement under which GLOBALFOUNDRIES plans to acquire IBM's global commercial semiconductor technology business, including intellectual property, world-class technologists and technologies related to IBM Microelectronics, subject to completion of applicable regulatory reviews. GLOBALFOUNDRIES will also become IBM's exclusive server processor semiconductor technology provider for 22 nanometer (nm), 14 nm and 10 nm semiconductors for the next 10 years.
The Agreement, once closed, enables IBM to further focus on fundamental semiconductor research and the development of future cloud, mobile, big data analytics, and secure transaction-optimized systems. IBM continues its previously announced $3 billion investment over five years for semiconductor technology research to lead in the next generation of computing. GLOBALFOUNDRIES will have primary access to the research that results from this investment through joint collaboration at the Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), SUNY Polytechnic Institute, in Albany, N.Y.
As part of this Agreement, GLOBALFOUNDRIES will gain substantial intellectual property including thousands of patents, making GLOBALFOUNDRIES the holder of one of the largest semiconductor patent portfolios in the world. GLOBALFOUNDRIES also will benefit from an influx of one of the best technical teams in the semiconductor industry, which will solidify its path to advanced process geometries at 10 nm and below. Additionally, the acquisition opens up business opportunities in industry-leading radio frequency (RF) and specialty technologies and ASIC design capabilities.
"This acquisition solidifies GLOBALFOUNDRIES' leadership position in semiconductor technology development and manufacturing," said Dr. Sanjay Jha, CEO, GLOBALFOUNDRIES. "We can now offer our customers a broader range of differentiated leading-edge 3D transistor and RF technologies, and we will also improve our design ecosystem to accelerate time-to-revenue for our customers. This acquisition further strengthens advanced manufacturing in the United States, and builds on established relationships in New York and Vermont."
"The Agreement expands our longstanding collaboration, which began when GLOBALFOUNDRIES was created in 2009, and reflects our confidence in GLOBALFOUNDRIES' capability," said IBM Senior Vice President & Director of Research Dr. John E. Kelly III. "This acquisition enables IBM to focus on fundamental semiconductor and material science research, development capabilities and expertise in high-value systems, with GLOBALFOUNDRIES' leadership in advanced technology manufacturing at scale and commitment to delivering future semiconductor technologies. We are grateful for the leadership and investments by the states of New York and Vermont in supporting the semiconductor industry."
This acquisition bolsters semiconductor manufacturing and technology development in the United States. GLOBALFOUNDRIES has robust capital expenditure plans of approximately $10 billion in 2014-2015, with the majority being invested in New York. GLOBALFOUNDRIES has created nearly 3,000 direct jobs in New York and thousands more indirect jobs in the United States since 2009.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES will acquire and operate existing IBM semiconductor manufacturing operations and facilities in East Fishkill, New York and Essex Junction, Vermont, adding capacity to serve its customers and thousands of jobs to GLOBALFOUNDRIES' workforce. GLOBALFOUNDRIES plans to provide employment opportunities for substantially all IBM employees at the two facilities who are part of the transferred businesses, except for a team of semiconductor server group employees who will remain with IBM. After the close of this transaction, GLOBALFOUNDRIES will be the largest semiconductor technology manufacturing employer in the Northeast.
GLOBALFOUNDRIES will also acquire IBM's commercial microelectronics business, which includes ASIC and specialty foundry, manufacturing and related operations and sales. GLOBALFOUNDRIES plans to invest to grow these businesses.
IBM will reflect a pre-tax charge of $4.7 billion in its financial results for the third quarter of 2014, which includes an asset impairment, estimated costs to sell the IBM microelectronics business, and cash consideration to GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Cash consideration of $1.5 billion is expected to be paid to GLOBALFOUNDRIES by IBM over the next three years. The cash consideration will be adjusted by the amount of working capital which is estimated to be $200 million.
The transaction is subject to the satisfaction of regulatory requirements and customary closing conditions.
AMD Reaches Wafer Supply Agreement With GlobalFoundries - 04/02/2014 08:22 AM
AMD today announced that it amended its Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA) with GLOBALFOUNDRIES Inc. for 2014. Under the terms of the amendment, AMD and GLOBALFOUNDRIES agreed on purchase commitments for 20...
AMD updates Globalfoundries deal buys less wafers - 12/07/2012 02:29 PM
AMD has amended its wafer supply agreement with Globalfoundries. Under the new agrement AMD significantly reduced its wafer purchase commitments, the chip designer currently estimates will will purcha...
AMD not savvy with GlobalFoundry yields - 09/26/2011 11:26 AM
Even though GlobalFoundries has shouted out time and time again that its 32nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) fabrication process doesn't face any sort of problems, an AMD official recently refuted these c...
AMD to only pay GlobalFoundries for good 32nm chips - 04/05/2011 11:00 AM
AMD has renegotiated its deal with GlobalFoundries. From now on, the chip designer will only pay GlobalFoundries for 32nm dies that work, instead of a fixed price per wafer. Full details in the PR bel...
GlobalFoundries Shows AMD Llano and Orochi 8-Core - 09/03/2010 10:53 AM
GlobalFoundries offers a little preview at one of the upcoming Fusion processors from AMD, the Orochi based on the Bulldozer architecture as Softpedia reports. Bobcat's firstborn will be the 40nmOntar...
Senior Member
Posts: 14610
Joined: 2014-07-21
Yeah... didn't see that coming. What is left of IBM then, if they sell their business including engineers and intellectual property? Their reserves of IBM t-shirts and stock of printer paper?
Senior Member
Posts: 1316
Joined: 2006-09-02
I guess this means AMD can be competitive with x86 again... in 2016
Senior Member
Posts: 6361
Joined: 2005-02-25
double post
Senior Member
Posts: 6361
Joined: 2005-02-25
Basically: they keep their research and developpement center, most of their intellectual propriety concerning semi-conductors, their server ( HPC ) buisness.
The difference is they will not anymore need to conduct their fabs and other material stuffs themselves but have Glofo who product the processors and globalize the appliccations of their research on production for them ..
Only Intel ( and Samsung ), are conduct their fabs themselves... And it seems to be a curse of time, even Intel is now wanting to product semi-conductors for other....
Senior Member
Posts: 1843
Joined: 2005-08-12
I haven't expected that. IBM is selling more and more.